Auto insurance is one of the most important types of cover you can buy. Not only is it mandatory in almost every state in the USA, the costs in terms of both property damage and medical costs in the event of a motor vehicle crash and be devastating, even at relatively low speeds. For this reason, Car insurance is usually quite expensive, which pushes people to try and cut down on the cover they have in order to save on premiums. Great idea until you need to claim!
You need to make sure your insurance arrangements meet your needs without breaking the bank, and fortunately we can help you with this. The first and most important step is to establish exactly what cover you need.
There are a number of different types of Car Insurance cover available, below is a summary of the main ones:
- Collision
- Comprehensive
- Medical
- Bodily Injury
- Property Damage
How Much do I need?
Generally you’ll want to have at least liability cover for both property damage and bodily injury. This will cover you for damage to other peoples property and for expenses relating to any injuries may sustain. This will not however cover you for damage to YOUR vehicle, only your liability to pay for someone else’s property. If you want cover for your own damage you’ll need Collision cover. If you have an expensive or rare vehicle, Collision cover may be a great investment for you as repair costs to your car may be significantly greater than those of the person you hit. You could also consider Comprehensive cover which would protect against loss by theft or other causes.
Most Liability policies offer cover for uninsured (or under-insured) motorists, which means that if the other driver has no insurance, or insufficient insurance to cover the damages, your policy will step in to cover the gap. while this is relatively standard, it’s worth checking to make sure as it can be a very important additional cover.
What Level of cover should I take?
You will need to have set minimum levels of cover based on your State – Nevada sets out it’s own minimum Liability cover levels and your policy will need to be compliant with this. If you get your insurance from any licensed Nevada insurance provider this won’t be a problem. The minimum is not necessarily where you should stop though, even if your vehicle is modest.
For example, consider the following common claim situation: Lets say that you fail to give way and hit another vehicle at an intersection due to momentary distraction. The front of your vehicle and side of the other vehicle are both damaged, you sustain a minor head injury and whiplash from the impact, and the other driver and his passenger are both injured also.
If you had property damage and bodily injury cover this would cover some or all of the cost of repairing the other drivers vehicle, and part of the medical costs associated with their injuries. If you have purchased minimum cover, you would probably have around 10K cover for property damage, and 30K for injury. If the other driver or passenger sustained a head or neck injury this would likely exhaust your cover and leave you at least another 10K to short before even looking at your injuries. If the other vehicle was an expensive car, your 10K of cover would be quickly exhausted, leaving you unable to repair your own vehicle.
While the minimum is a good place to start, in reality you may need significantly more than that for even a moderate accident. You should have Liability cover (Property damage and Bodily Injury) well above the minimums required, then add Medical Payments to cover injuries to your passengers or yourself. Finally if your vehicle is expensive to repair or replace, add Comprehensive or Collision insurance
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